


Five Years

by ichigoangel



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Fluff, Long Distance Relationship, M/M, a prompt that i really just couldnt resist
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-09-10
Updated: 2013-09-10
Packaged: 2017-12-26 04:28:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,446
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/961564
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ichigoangel/pseuds/ichigoangel
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Eren and Levi have been in a long-distance relationship for five years, and the day finally arrives where they get to meet in real life.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Five Years

**Author's Note:**

> A prompt provided to me by humanitysotp on Tumblr. I couldn't resist this prompt and just had to write a short oneshot on it~ <3

“Are you ready for tomorrow?” 

“More than you even know.”

“I’m pretty sure I do know, dumbass.”

“Hey, watch it. You’re ruining the moment.”

“No, I’m not. But really, I’m pretty goddamn positive I do understand how ready you are for tomorrow. Because I’m just as ready for it as you are.”

“I don’t doubt it. Five years.” 

Five years had become a common phrase in the couple’s conversations; five years had passed since they met each other online. Five years had passed since they started to get to know each other over Skype video chatting and extended phone calls. Five years had passed since they asked each other for the other’s opinion on long distance relationships and five years had passed since feelings were reciprocated. They lived in opposite ends of the country, and thus far, the younger of the two had been unable to make the trip cross-country to meet his own boyfriend face-to-face. 

But now Eren Yeager was twenty-two years old; a graduate fresh out of college. His brown hair was in a constant state of disarray and his personality clashed with most people’s, causing him to only have two close friends, one of them being his own sister. He spent a considerable portion of his free time on his laptop, chatting with people he had never met on a handful of different websites. Naturally, that was how he met Levi, a twenty-seven year old who had started making a decent living for himself immediately out of college. While he sounded sophisticated by first impressions, he lacked the eloquence that most people would assume him to possess. Eren had quickly grown to admire the person at the other end of the computer, and they soon fell into the habit of talking every night. 

Eren was only seventeen when they met; a hormonal teenager who didn’t care to even think about his fast-approaching future. Levi had just graduated college and obtained his first real job (which turned out to be his permanent job) when they first started talking. Their time zones set them about four hours apart, but that never bothered them at all. They really didn’t have much in common and were both experiencing vastly different times of their lives, so it was relatively surprising that they clicked as well as they did right off the bat. One thing they did have in common, though, was that people generally figured them to be assholes; Eren was a hot-tempered asshole and Levi was a disinterested, sarcastic asshole. Neither of them was particularly graceful when it came to social interaction, so maybe that played a part in their instant connection. 

They soon considered each other close friends; Levi was willing to tell Eren what he refused to tell even his closest of real life friends. Not that he had that many, but he did have a couple. Eren had been surprised to learn that the attractive face behind the computer had possessed a considerably dark past, and the fact that he was now extremely successful made Eren admire him that much more. The younger would never have thought even in his wildest dreams that Levi would return the feelings he’d developed over the course of two months of constant online communication. 

He didn’t even want to confess his feelings to Levi, fearing that the black-haired man would laugh and cut off communication with Eren. Originally, when he finally mustered up the courage to tell Levi how he felt, he planned on doing it over Skype; not over a video call, just over the IM system. But even if Levi responded to the confession horridly, Eren still wanted to see his face, no matter how twisted it may have been. They had never video-called before, and Levi had assumed something was up when Eren randomly asked if they could video chat instead of IM’ing like they always did. 

Eren had regretted his decision as soon as Levi’s face appeared on the webcam. This was the closest he’d gotten thus far to seeing his friend’s face in person, and would be the closest he would get for five years. Eren was quiet for a moment, taking in the sight. Levi had just gotten home from work when their conversation began, so he still had on a silvery-blue formal button-down with a black and grey tie. His undercut hair fell around his face in all of the right ways, and his narrow eyes and permanently crooked eyebrows caused Eren’s heart to skip a beat. Levi looked tired but didn’t seem annoyed that Eren wanted to video chat with him, much to Eren’s relief. Levi stared right back at him, and Eren had no choice but to begin the speech that he had rehearsed countless times in front of his bathroom mirror.

Eren’s face had heated up a considerable amount as he spoke and he knew his cheeks had darkened into a shade of red, and the words fell clumsily out of his mouth. He watched as Levi’s eyes widened slightly and was about to apologize for admitting that he cared about Levi in a way that was more than platonic when Levi opened his thin mouth and spoke.

“So you’re saying you want to go out with me?”

“I…well, yeah.” Eren stumbled on his words as he replied.

“You’re okay with a long distance relationship? You know we probably won’t be able to meet for a long time, right?”

“Yeah, I know that. I’m fine with that.”

“I see.”

“…I’m sorry.”

“Why?”

“Because you probably didn’t need to know how I feel.”

“I didn’t even give a response to your confession yet.”

“I know, but…”

“But what?”

“…Nothing.” Eren wasn’t sure where he’d been going with the response, anyways. 

“Well, I’ve always been fine with the idea of long distance relationships. And I’m not going to deny that I care a lot more about you than I do about most people.”

“So, what does that mean?”

“It means if you’re asking to go out with me, I won’t say no.”

“Really?”

“Do I look like I’m somebody who says shit they don’t mean?”

“No, I guess not.”

“So, are you going to outright ask me, or…?” Levi asked, impatience edging his smooth voice. That was the first time that Eren had gotten to hear Levi’s voice, and he certainly hadn’t been disappointed. His voice was just as attractive as the rest of him was. Eren was slightly annoyed that Levi was forcing him to ask when he pretty much already had, but he was too overjoyed to really care.

“Levi, will you be my boyfriend?” The red in Eren’s cheeks deepened considerably as the words escaped from his parted lips.

“You know what, kid? I will.” Levi’s lips upturned slightly; the closest to a smile that he was ever really willing to give. 

And so their five-year long distance relationship had begun. It really hadn’t been easy; there was nothing in the world that either of the two longed for more than to be able to see each other in the flesh. They knew it was completely worth it, though; when they did finally get to feel each other’s embrace, it would be the happiest moment of their lives. Despite the vast distance, the two were closer to each other than they were to anyone else in their lives; they had forged an unbreakable bond over their five years. People constantly questioned the validity of their relationship, and the couple disregarded the near-constant criticism of their relationship. People refused to believe two people could fall in love without ever having met in real life. Eren was frustrated by it, but Levi always told him it wasn’t worth getting angry over; those people had never overcome the obstacle of distance the way that they had.

They sent each other Christmas presents and opened them in front of each other via Skype. On Valentine’s day, they each bought a box of chocolates and dedicated it to each other, pretending that they’d actually been able to exchange them in person. A couple of times they had even ordered pizza from their own respective Pizza Huts and ate them together. They watched movies together; horror movies, cheesy romantic comedies, and horridly stupid yet hilarious movies were the most popular genres for them both to watch. Once Eren was old enough to buy his own booze, they would get drunk together and stay up all night engaged in enthusiastic conversation; Levi loosened up a lot after a few drinks. They did everything that normal couples did, there was just a thin computer screen that kept them separated, and that was the only difference.

While they were more than happy, both of them felt their impatience rise as Eren’s senior year of college came closer and closer. They just wanted his school year to be over so that he could hop on a plane and finally meet his boyfriend. When Eren only had two months yet, they started the repetition of “five years”. It was the opening phrase to their conversation and the closing phrase; it even came after “I love you” when they were both falling asleep on their own ends of the telephone and ready to hang up on each other.  
Five years. Five years later, they were talking over the phone about the following day’s plan. Finally.

Eren’s plane left early in the morning, and when all was said and done, he would meet Levi at the airport around three ‘o clock in the afternoon. It was a good thing Eren had to get up around three in the morning to make his flight; there was no way in hell he was going to get any sleep that night, anyways. His only thought was Levi as he hauled his suitcase into an airport that was an hour long drive away from Eren’s tiny apartment. He thought about him as he passed through security and as he waited to board his plane. He wore a navy blue and white checkered button-down and khakis, hoping to look semi-presentable when he saw Levi. Unfortunately, he had long since outgrown his decent shoes, and his white tennis shoes didn’t match the rest of his outfit at all. Oh well; nobody was going to be looking at his shoes, anyways.

He had to lay-over after a two hour flight on the first plane, and he was supposed to call Levi when he made it to the gate for his second plane, so that Levi had a better indicator of when to head over to his airport; lord knows you can never go by the estimated time of arrival that you start the day with. As promised, he called Levi whilst sitting on a chair, staring at the status screen positioned above. His flight was on time, at least; it would be a bit later than three ‘o clock but not by as much as they would have thought. Eren just wanted the goddamn process to be over with so that he could finally be with Levi after waiting for so long.

Eren wanted to cry when he heard Levi’s voice on the other end of the phone; in just a couple of hours he was going to hear that voice in person. In a couple of hours, he would be able to hold the person on the other end of the telephone. The second flight took nothing less than an eternity to pass; Eren busied himself with looking at how tiny everything below looked, but that was hardly a distraction from the inevitability of the moment he’d longed for so desperately. 

-x-

At three forty-seven in the afternoon, Eren’s second plane landed. He was officially in the same location as Levi for the very first time. Excitement caused his heart to beat faster and faster as he followed the line of passengers off of the large plane. Each step brought him closer to Levi, and he couldn’t believe that this was actually happening. After five years. Five goddamn years.

Eren was past the gate. Plenty of people were gathered around in the area, scanning desperately for their own loved-ones. Eren’s eyes moved about frantically, looking for one person and one person only. His eyes landed on a well-dressed man standing alone; shorter than a fair majority of the other adults in the room. Levi had long since warned Eren that he was short, but he was even shorter than Eren thought he would be, at least it seemed that way from that distance.

Eren saw Levi before Levi saw him; Levi was looking around with as much fervor as Eren had. All of the passengers were past the single-file walkway, so Eren didn’t have to worry about bumping into anyone else. Levi was standing apart from everyone else, which also helped to clear Eren’s path. Emotion shot through Eren with more force than a bullet at the sight of his boyfriend, and he couldn’t keep himself from running. His feet propelled him forward desperately, and when he’d made it about halfway to Levi, Levi finally noticed him. He broke into a run as well; intense happiness flooded through him knowing that his boyfriend was actually there; this was reality. It wasn’t just a dream. Eren was there. 

Once the distance between them was closed, Eren wrapped his arms around Levi and lifted him up off the ground, spinning him around before setting him down; just like a scene right out of one of the romance movies they made fun of in the middle of the night. They clung to each other tightly, refusing to let go. Eren buried his face in Levi’s soft hair, breathing in the scent. Levi’s face was buried in Eren’s chest. Eren’s arms were wrapped protectively around Levi’s thin waist, and Levi’s arms were wrapped firmly around Eren’s back. They let the feeling of being in each other’s arms consume them and the rest of the world didn’t even exist to them in that moment. The only thing that mattered was that they were together. After five years, they were in each other’s arms.

A tear fought its way to Eren’s eye, and he didn’t bother to wipe it away as it spilled over and landed onto Levi’s hair. He tightened his grip around Levi’s waist, and Levi finally pulled his face away from Eren’s chest. The two stared at each other for a split second before leaning into each other at the same time. Their lips connected and the kiss was fueled by passion and longing, and it was a long time before either of them were willing to pull away. Their lips worked together as if they had been meant for each other, and nothing had ever felt quite so natural to either of them. Neither of them had felt so much joy before, and they were both completely bewildered. They were unsure of what to do next now that they were finally together; all they knew was that they weren’t ready to break away from the embrace yet.

Eren took a moment to appreciate Levi’s appearance; he was wearing one of his white suit shirts with a black and grey tie along with a pair of black formal pants that were adorned with a black belt. He wondered if Levi wore anything that was actually casual; either way, he didn’t mind in the slightest. 

His heart skipped a beat as he took in the sight of his boyfriend, and he whispered, “Five years.” 

Levi actually gave him a full-on smile, his face lit up with happiness as he responded. “Five years.”

They slowly let their arms drop from around each other so that they could grab each other’s hands. 

In one swift, fluid motion they intertwined their fingers together and leaned in for one more kiss before doing anything else.

“I can’t believe this is actually happening.” Eren said, gazing tenderly at Levi’s face that for once held no traces of irritation or stress like they had any other time.

“I can’t believe it either.” Levi responded, squeezing Eren’s hand.

People have the tendency to take the simplicity in holding hands for granted; most couples got to do it whenever they pleased, carelessly taking their lover’s hand into their own every single day. To them, it was a casual display of affection; to Eren and Levi it was so much more. Eren’s slightly rough hand having a hold on Levi’s impossibly soft one went far beyond the triviality of just holding the hand of another person. 

They were two people who had been willing to dedicate themselves to each other for five years without so much as a singly physical touch. For five years, they had allowed themselves to love one another freely despite every obstacle that distance presented. The two souls that had been made for each other had finally joined together, and neither of them would ever forget the moment that they felt each other’s embrace for the very first time. They were no longer just voices on the opposite line of the phone; were no longer untouchable presences on the other side of the computer.

“You’re shorter than I thought you’d be.” Eren said, breaking the comfortable silence that had formed between them as they clung to each other’s hands and reveled in their proximity. 

Levi’s face shifted from the blissful expression that had spread across it to be replaced with a scorn much more typical of Levi. 

“Not my fault you’re tall, asshole.” Eren wasn’t considered to be overly tall for a guy; he had grown up to be around 5’10” when all was said and done. He laughed and disentangled his fingers from Levi’s so that he could hug him once again. 

“I’m so happy right now.” Eren said as he pulled Levi to him as closely as he could manage. 

“I am, too. But we still need to grab your luggage and head over to my place, you know.” He replied, gently grabbing Eren’s arms and pulling them away from him.

Eren sighed and said, “You’re right.” Their fingers found their way back to each other as they made their way to the luggage claim. Once Eren had his bag, they exited the airport and climbed into a shiny black car that was kept impossibly clean. When Levi made it out onto the road and was completely away from the airport, he grabbed Eren’s hand and brushed his fingers lightly over Eren’s hand before grabbing it and intertwining their fingers once more. Levi drove the remainder of the way home with only one hand on the steering wheel.

Levi had a two-bedroom house that wasn’t new but wasn’t overly old, either. The inside was just as clean and tidy as Levi’s car had been, and Eren realized that he would have to adjust to a more rigorous cleaning schedule than he was used to. 

Neither of them felt like going out; they wanted nothing more than to just enjoy each other’s company away from the rest of the world. Since ordering Pizza Hut had always been their thing, that’s what they ordered for supper (because neither of them could be bothered to try and actually cook anything). They lay together on the black leather couch that sat against the wall of Levi’s living room and ate their way through the whole box of overly-greasy pizza. They reminisced all of the times that they’d eaten pizza together over Skype as the amount of pizza in the box steadily decreased.

-x-

It had been over five years since Eren had last slept in the same bed as another person; when he started dating Levi, he’d already been out of his last relationship for almost a year. The same went for Levi; his bed had been occupied only by him since he moved into his house. They slept in only their boxers and they cuddled up as close to each other as they possibly could, arms wrapped around each other and legs intertwined intimately. The fluffy black and white pillows were soft underneath their tired heads and the black and white comforter protected their serenity from the outside world. Nothing compared to the feeling of falling asleep in each other’s arms for the first time after being in love for five years, and after one last goodnight kiss, they closed their eyes and waited to peaceful slumber to wash over them. 

“Five years.” Eren whispered with a yawn.

“Five years.” Levi replied, moving one of his arms so that he could lightly stroke Eren’s face before succumbing to sleep for the night.

Five years, indeed.


End file.
